Author Comments

Explore and mine minerals! Visit alien planets and mine for the resources you need to upgrade yourself and your ship. Features procedurally generated levels and an object-based crafting system for upgrades. Find 18 artifacts to unlock all story pieces and finish the game, or keep playing to get all the upgrades.

Inspired by MotherLoad, this is an RPG-like spin-off. You won't be disappointed!
Instructions

- fix: now you can also get small lava globule from lava pockets
- bugFix: you no longer die when a gas geyser explodes using dynamite
- in the Research tab you can see all items now, even objects you don't own yet (should make a lot more sense now)

NEW UPDATE:

Added Medals!

Reviews

Rated 5 / 5 stars2012-07-09 04:21:31

Graphics: 11/10 - Most spectacular graphics I have EVER seen in a Flash game. Bravo sir.
Gameplay: 9/10 - The way you implemented RPG elements and an intricate, tear-jerking back story s incredible! Although, it is EXTREMELY repetitive.
Concept: 8.5/10 - Incredibly well thought and very original, although a little odd since you don't really get the whole "Robot left behind" thing until you get near the end.

Overall: 10/10 Simply can't give it a lower score than that. Not possible.

Rated 4 / 5 stars2012-07-09 03:57:25

Likes:
I like the variety or the things you can mine. (Minerals, crystals, archeological artifacts, gases, ect...)
The graphics are very nice and despite the worlds being fairly desolate (that I've seen), the whole thing is very graphically appealing.
The geology seems on par and some research seems to have been put into it though I am far from an expert on this.
The story really has that "lost, alone, and trying to find a way home" feel I think you may have been going for.
The music is nice and adds into the whole theme well (except maybe the more urgent aboriginal drum background song, it felt out of place after all the others, sort of like the background music off Halo:Reach during either "Winter Contingency" or the intro to "Sword Base").
The crafting

Dislikes:
1. The heat system, while realistic, was irritating at times. I wouldn't say "get rid of it" but making it a little less of a hassle or having a casual mode where I don't have to deal with the thing would be nice.
2. The lack of climbing ability. Seriously, this is one of the first things you would put on a robot designed to drill holes. Instead of using massive amounts of fuel to boost around (which is expensive and inefficient tbh), they would throw some strong brace arms that could climb around and hold it in place while it gets at mineral deposits. To late to do much about it now I believe, but it is something I dislike none the less.
3. The boosting inconsistency. While true this adds an element of strategy to the game, the fact that it can put out enough thrust to go a ways up but somehow can't keep doing this with the remaining (more than enough) fuel. It doesn't appear to be due to heating problems and it isn't really much to do with fuel (on account of the fact that it can still "glide" for a while and can do the same boost once it lands) and if you hold space it can somehow keep the bot pinned against the roof while it drills up, only stopping when it cant drill anymore (you could say that the drill is pulling it up as well but it's still if-y to me).

Small suggestions:
Some of the animation work is off and could use tweaking. The first jump is instant but it shows the bot readying for the jump and then acting as if it is jumping after it already having a good second of air time. I would suggest either putting a delay on the jump so that the jump is synchronized as it springs up or altering the animation so that it doesn't take that second to crouch down and then jump. I would also add alternate drilling animations for drilling sideways while mid-air.

I would type more but the things that I know I'll think of later aren't coming to me right now so I'll just post this and hope they aren't to important.

Rated 3.5 / 5 stars2012-07-09 00:32:52

Alright.
Motherload was terrible in my opinion. There's a lot of mining flash games around and Motherload wasn't the first or last. Inspired alot of concept but it was garbage on execution. That concept lead to later mining games.

Megaminer was fun but duller than Minecraft. Which is saying something.
Utopian Mining was MegaMiner with a bigger emphasis on story. Too short.

In a nutshell Glean is what Motherload should have been. A combination of Motherload and MegaMiner. None of the problems, excellent graphics and sound.

I like it overall, but a few things I didn't like.
- The overheating system. That's just me, there's nothing wrong with it.
- The GUI, it's a tad bit confusing. I would have expected the red bar that drains to be the fuel bar, not the health bar. Other than that, it's sharp and clear.
-Like Motherload, digging yourself into a hole is a possibility. Unlike Motherload, that possibility is very low.

Rated 5 / 5 stars2012-07-08 22:17:34

Kesuli wrote:
warning: dont play this game, its just a cheap rip off of the minecraft and megaminer game!
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WTF does this have at all do to with minecraft? That POC is nothing like this game. Did you even play it?

Megaminer? garbage compared to this. And even that was a rip-off of Motherload.... WHICH THE AUTHOR GAVE CREDIT TO!

Back to Glean,
This was awesome and a tribute to the motherload theme. I really hope you make another. I love these kinds of games.

I really wish you would add a (mix all) button or (mix 10) or (mix 100) button. I think I must have made about 300 screws by the end, and near the end I was making batches of 50 at a time.

I also found it frustrating getting some of the recepies, and I found the ending rather weak... like you were setting up for a chapter two but didn't finish it.